God Thirsts That We May Thirst for Him: The Living Water of Christ
Listening the Spirit
Jesus, I desire to see myself through Your eyes of Love. Please remove all lies and distortions that veil my vision of myself. May I see Your Truth in my own eyes and a reflection of my image in Your eyes. Your gaze is pure Love, the look that reveals my true beauty. I uncover my face and my heart and open my eyes before You. Come, Lord and see me as I am, for I believe Your looking upon me will heal and restore me. Amen.
Listening the Word: John 4:5-42
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.
“I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him.
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
Reflection
Saint Augustine: "God thirsts that we may thirst for Him"
Along the centuries many people have approached this passage of the Gospel because they were fascinated by the dialogue of life. A dialogue that opens to Life, a dialogue that generates Life: the one between Jesus and the Samaritan woman.
We – together with all the people in the world - feel thirsty: we need fresh water, “a spring of water welling up to eternal life”. We need the gift of New Life: the Life that comes from the Holy Spirit, flow of Holy water able to transform everything and to make all new.
Jesus is the missionary of the Father: He meets the woman, starts the dialogue first, touching her wounds (her story: she had five husbands…) and making her desire of God visible at the center of the dialogue. Jesus is proclaiming to her the mystery of salvation both announcing that “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth” and revealing His identity “I am he, the one speaking with you.”
Jesus proceeds step by step, respecting the story and the culture of the woman. But Jesus enlightens the dialogue with a message able to set her free by her wounds and able to leave her jar and go to proclaim herself the extraordinary meeting “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?”.
From the woman’s desire to the Truth of her life: Jesus accompanies the Samaritan in a path of awareness and liberation. Finally, she becomes missionary herself, going to call people to “come and see”.
Along the roads of the world we go to meet our brothers and sisters. Let’s try to open a dialogue with them: let us ask Jesus to be present in our midst in order to open for them the path that leads to their own hearts. And listening to each other thirst, we can easily become aware together that “God is Spirit”: this Spirit is the only water able to strengthen our heart and direct us to be in communion with God our Father. Discovering our relation with Him, we can finally walk again along the roads of the world with a new hope and the heart full of the Love of God.
Let us pray for all the people in the world that are preparing themselves to receive the sacrament of Baptism: the gift of the HOLY SPIRIT, the , “spring of water welling up to eternal life”.
Reflection Questions
- What “thirst” do I carry in my heart today, and how is Jesus inviting me to encounter Him as the Living Water who can heal and renew my life?
- Like the Samaritan woman who left her jar and shared her experience, how can I invite others to “come and see” the love of Christ in my daily life?
